DENTAL CARE. An inmate gets a tooth extraction from a dentist during a medical mission conducted on Wednesday (April 18) by the Maguindanao provincial government at its provincial jail situated at Pedro Colina Hill in Cotabato City. (Photo by Maguindanao PIO)
COTABATO CITY -- The provincial government, through its Peoples' Medical Team, conducted Wednesday a free medical mission to all 289 inmates of the provincial jail facility situated at Pedro Colina Hill in this city.
Headed by Provincial Budget Officer Lynnette Estandarte, the medical team checked on the health status of inmates followed by consultations with four doctors.
Cough, fever, cold, high blood and tooth decay were among the common health problems affecting the inmates.
Of the total, 282 were given medicine and vitamins, while 65 others underwent various dental operations.
After the four-hour medical mission, the team also provided free lunch to the detainees and jail personnel.
“Thank you very much to the medical team, especially to Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, for although we have not seen you in person, we feel your services, especially to us here in the detention who have various cases,” said Bernard Sison, inmate at Cell No. 7.
Sison was locked up in provincial jail since 2004 for a rape case. He had witnessed the life inside the three-storey narrow jail building for 15 years now.
He said “illness is inevitable” inside the 45-year-old government facility adding that there were times that the facility is overcrowded that made them easily get sick.
The jail facility, with a capacity to cater 300 detainees, was built in 1973 when Cotabato City was then the seat of the undivided Cotabato province aptly referred to as the “Cotabato Empire”.
The original set-up of the province was subsequently divided into Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato. By then, this city was detached from Maguindanao province making it independent and placing the jail facility on wayward site that currently brims with dense civilian residential houses.
In 2016, the provincial government began construction of a modern rehabilitation and correctional facility worth PHP50 million in Buluan, Maguindanao. The new jail facility, which can accommodate over 1,000 inmates, is expected for completion by September this year.
The governor said the modern correctional facility, together with its reformative amenities, was conceived with utmost consideration for human rights protection.
“The detainees are also human beings like us. They are entitled to services and provisions with which they can reform and rejoin their communities as good citizens,” Mangudadatu said.
Only last week, provincial government personnel led by Maguindanao Administrator Abdulrakman Asim, conducted ocular and inventory inspection to ensure safekeeping of inmates and decent quarters at their old jail building here.
Asim also ensured that food, water and clothing of the inmates were in compliance with established United Nations standards. (PNA)
